


It Could Have Been Raining

by rusting_roses



Category: Star Trek (2009)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-26
Updated: 2010-07-26
Packaged: 2017-10-28 23:11:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/313214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rusting_roses/pseuds/rusting_roses
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kirk. Nyota. Handcuffed. What could possible go wrong?</p>
            </blockquote>





	It Could Have Been Raining

**Author's Note:**

  * For [where_no_woman](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=where_no_woman).



“Captain,” Nyota said in the same voice that a hundred million women have used to say, “You condescending asshole.”

“Yes, my dearest, darlingest Uhura?” Kirk answered with his most blinding grin, in the same voice every man has used when they know they are buried so deep in trouble that they’ll be lucky to see the sky ever again.

“I hope you know,” Nyota growled through gritted teeth, glaring at the handcuffs between them as though it would make them dissolve into rust. When that had no effect, her mouth tightened. “That this is completely and utterly your fault.”

“Um, no it’s not?” Kirk tried, but even he didn’t look like he believed it. “Hey, I was just trying to do the gentlemanly thing, offering to dance with you! How was I supposed to know that it’s the equivalent of a proposal?” Nyota opened her mouth, but Kirk showed the first sign of irritation since they’d been handcuffed together and shoved out into the wilderness without a single means of survival in order to ‘test their bonds of love and loyalty’. “And don’t even give me that look. I carefully read the mission report and everything. Besides, if you’d known, you wouldn’t have accepted the offer and Spock, Kavil, and Jones wouldn’t be scrambling to find a way to break our supposed engagement before we break each other.”

Nyota blew out a frustrated breath. “So, the Archway of Love,” she said glumly.

“Yeah,” Kirk replied in an equally dry voice. “The Archway of Love,” he repeated in a dramatic voice, gesturing with his free hand at the foliage around them, “The Archway, which can only be reached by those pure of heart and intent, those who are truly in love and who are the world to one another. They must cross the forest, with all of its traps and beasts and cliffs. Oh my!” Kirk finished with unholy glee, and Nyota felt completely justified in elbowing him. Kirk just grunted and continued to lead the way.

“And we have to manage this task before sunset, of course, because isn’t that just the perfect cliché,” Nyota groaned, pushing back a branch so she could follow Kirk’s steps. “Unfortunately, the locals are experts in tracking and…and…” Nyota waved a hand, indicating the forest at large clearly at a loss, “All that other forestry work. And we are most certainly not, at least not beyond the basics taught in survival training. We don’t even know where this Archway is really, besides the fact that it’s in the north between the Weeping Angel and the Gold Star and supposedly our love- and the red flower trail- will lead us there. We’ve got nothing but the clothing on our back, no way for the _Enterprise_ to track us or know if we’ve been killed by one of the hundred ways we could possibly die-”

“Alright there, Miss Grumpygills,” Kirk interrupted, frowning a little when he half-turned to give Nyota a hand over a large pile of stones. “It’ll be fine. We’ll get through this in one piece,” he said with a grin, and Nyota was reassured despite herself. Kirk _had_ gotten both into and out of far more worrisome messes than this. In comparison, this was practically a vacation, since at least no one was attempting to kill them. On the other side, they both paused to orient themselves, making sure that they were still headed north; the red trail of flowers that they‘d been told to follow was only so useful, as it had a tendency to meander.

They made decent time until about an hour after noon; they had encountered nothing more dangerous than wide, fast paced river and a few steep cliff sides that they had to traverse carefully. They even managed to hold a pleasant debate for most of that time, a debate which didn’t dissolve into a full out argument that left them at each other‘s throats. It was a little strange to see such a kind and intelligent side to the Captain, to see him debate both so well and so passionately. She knew that logically, of course, he was hardly the cretin she‘d tangled with during their time at the Academy, but his first impression back in Riverside had been so dramatic and emphatic that Nyota often had a hard time reconciling the brilliant Starfleet Captain with the man who had annoyed her for three years straight at the Academy- and did his best, some days, to do the same on the _Enterprise_.

The worst part, in Nyota’s opinion, was therefore not Kirk, as she had expected it would be. Instead, it was all the bugs, which seemed to consider both her and the Captain a delicacy. For once, it was not her Captain but her that had the allergic reaction, and each bite swelled, becoming a dark bluish color even against her dark skin. “We need to do something about those,” Kirk protested, examining some of the ones on her legs in detail during one of their breaks. “But bug bites were not exactly covered anywhere in the manual. I suppose because bleeding out of a major artery should take precedence in any given situation.”

“Leave them,” Nyota sighed, trying not to scratch at them. “There’s nothing we can do but get to this Archway before too long, so Doctor McCoy can take a look at them. Therefore, the sooner we get going, the better.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Kirk said with a sigh, giving her a hand up. “Well, it doesn’t look like anything worse than a case of hives or a bad mosquito bite. At least, you haven’t died from asphyxiation yet, so that’s a good thing. If you haven’t died by now, you probably around going to die.”

“Thanks for that,” Nyota said dryly. “You’re really good at this bedside manner thing.”

“So Bones always tells me,” Kirk returned without hesitation. “But he’s not exactly the gold standard.” Nyota rolled her eyes, tossing her hair back over her shoulder.

It was at that point that they heard the growl.

It was a deep, resounding growl that seemed to make every leaf in the entire forest and some of the branches shudder. A second call followed on the heels of the first, and the forest went absolutely silent around them. “What was that about not dying?” Nyota squeaked.

“That we’re not going to?” Kirk said firmly, turning to meet her eyes squarely. He swallowed. “Though I suppose I should ask, in the interest of survival…that didn’t happen to be your stomach, was it?” Kirk asked with a strangely calm voice, even as he froze when the sound came again, sounding closer this time. “I mean, we haven’t eaten since last night. It’d be understandable.”

“Captain, I can assure you that I am not, and have never been, that hungry.”

“Oh. Damn.”

“Indeed.”

“Run?”

“I think that would be advisable, Captain.”

And so they did. They never did catch sight of the animal that had made the sound, but that was fine, because they ended up being too busy trying not to fall the rest of the way over a cliff to worry about being eaten as a result of their misadventure. In their haste to get away from whatever had made the sound, they’d crashed through the greenery, leaving the trail of red flowers they were supposed to follow and dashed towards perceived safety without taking a careful look at the scenery around them. As a result, they’d ended up skidding down the hill before they could regain their balance; at the bottom was a sheer cliff.

Nyota was clinging to the edge, breaths coming in frightened pants. “Captain,” she gasped, trying to haul herself up. She couldn’t quite manage; her legs were dangling in midair, and she didn’t have enough upper body strength to haul herself up that way.

“I got you, I got you!” Kirk reassured her. “Alright, now I’m going to grab your free arm, alright?”

Nyota made an affirmative sound, and Kirk shifted to grab her other arm. The cuffs bit deeply into their wrists, and they made simultaneous sounds of pain; Kirk a little gasp, and Nyota a tiny groan. From there, it was a good two or three minutes of grunting and sharp breaths as Kirk pulled her back from the ledge and onto safer ground.

When Kirk had hauled her back up, they both lay there against the loose stone at their back, chests heaving.

“We’re lost now, aren’t we?” Nyota said, staring at the brilliant teal sky as she tried to get her pounding heart to settle.

“Yeah, probably,” Kirk gasped from beside her, rubbing at his wrist, hissing when it jarred his wound. When she’d gone over the edge, the handcuffs had sliced open their skin, and their wrists were now tacky with blood.

“Lemme see that,” Nyota said, brushing his hand away. Using the bottom of her shirt, she cleared away some of the blood, paying close attention to Kirk‘s expression to see how much pain he was in. “I would say we should try and find a river so we can wash off some of the blood, but who knows what kind of contaminants are in there that you’ll probably react poorly too.”

“You’ve been spending _far_ too much time with Bones,” Kirk grumped, and Nyota rolled her eyes, laughing a little despite herself and their current situation. “If you stab me with a hypospray, I cannot be held responsible for what I do.”

“Considering I don’t have a hypospray on me, I think we’re alright,” Nyota said, shaking her head, smiling again. She caught herself, and said, “How do you _do_ that?”

“Do what?” Kirk asked blankly, staring at her. He shifted carefully on the stones, and began attending to her wrist. His hands were surprisingly gentle and practiced, and it hardly hurt at all when the metal cuff was rotated around her wrist. He managed to clear away most of the blood, for which she was grateful, but Nyota also felt faintly sick at the dark hue staining his gold shirt. At least her red top made the blood practically indistinguishable. She wasn’t squeamish, per say, but nor was she particularly comfortable with blood. He saw where her glance went and said. “Don’t worry, it’s not a big deal,” Kirk said with yet another one of those effortless grins. “I’ve ruined so many shirts with my own blood that it’s nice to ruin it with someone else’s. And do what?” He repeated, looking at her earnestly.

Nyota took her eyes away from her wrist, her other hand scratching at some of the bite marks as she looked out over the cliff and out towards the sea, which made up the majority of the planet. It was nice here, with a pleasant breeze that cooled her brow. Starfleet uniforms were supposed to be made for any and all situations, but even so, she’d worked up quite a sweat. “Make me laugh even when I’m trying really hard to be angry at you and your enormous stupidity.”

“Years of skill,” Kirk said sagely, pulling her up. “Besides, laughing is great for stress, so I do my best to laugh at least twice a day.” He winked at her, and then turned to the hill. They carefully made their way back to the top, loose stones making the progress slow at best, sometimes making it stall completely as they tried to keep from falling back down the cliff and over the edge. It seemed to take forever before they reached the top of the ledge. Kirk wiped at his forehead, breathe still coming in pants from the climb. “Any idea where we should start?”

“We should probably head north still,” Nyota said, shading her eyes from the hot white sun. “I doubt we’ll be able to find that trail of flowers we were supposed to follow, but if we head north, I bet we’ll be able to find those stone figures they were talking about. If they’re as large as the locals made them sound, then we should be able to spot them from at least a kilometer away.”

Of course, things weren’t that easy. Even when they made their way back into the forest proper and began heading north once more, they weren’t out of the woods yet- literally and figuratively. As Nyota expected, there was not a single red flower in sights, and enough animals passed through the woods that they couldn’t tell which trail was theirs, which prevented them from backtracking their footsteps back to where they were supposed to be.

They continued their trek north, and the heat began wearing on them, making them sweat more and become increasingly irritated with one another. It was a relief when they finally hit the river. Or rather, hit the tall ravine in which there was a river. The walked for a good twenty minutes, trying to find a way across when they finally spotted their salvation. There was a bridge and the bridge was covered in red flowers, which had been wrapped all along the rope. Nyota smiled with relief, though a small seed of trepidation began to blossom; it was, after all, a rope bridge and a very old looking one at that. Nyota tried to reassure herself that since it had stood so long, they were unlikely to be the pair to make it break. At the very least, they were once more headed on the right track.

So it was only to be expected when as they made their way first to, then across, the bridge, Nyota’s astute hearing heard it when the ropes began slowly but surely snapping. When she froze in the middle of the bridge, Kirk jerked back against the unexpected weight.

“Captain?” Nyota said uncertainly, trying to figure out how much time they had, “I hope you’re not too tired, because I think we need to start running again.”

“Let me guess. The bridge ropes are snapping, right?”

“Right.”

And off they went again, sprinting across the bridge as fast as they could, finally falling into some sort of equal pace that accounted for the length of both their strides after a few precious seconds where they‘d nearly pitched themselves off the dangerously swaying bridge in their effort to run as fast as they could. When they got to the other side, they turned and paused, fighting for breath as the ropes finally gave way and the bridge fell. A cloud of dust flew up as the ropes hit the sides of the ravine, making them both cough. Then there was a flurry of activity, and some sort of winged creature- several of them, as a matter of fact- flew out of the trees and attacked Kirk, mostly by emptying their bowels on him.

“Fuck!” Kirk shouted, looking repulsed. “This is getting a little ridiculous! First the bugs, then the growling, then the cliff and our wrists, then the fucking rope bridge breaks, and then just to top it off, I’m covered in some sort of bird shit!” He looked down at his clothing, helplessly outraged.

“Smelly bird shit,” Nyota corrected, holding a hand in front of her nose and stepping away from her Captain. She couldn’t help laughing a little helplessly herself, because it was either laugh or cry at this point.

“Thanks,” Kirk retorted. “Really, that’s helpful.”

Nyota pulled herself together and took pity on him, grabbing a couple of leaves off a nearby tree and used it to clear the worst of the mess away. “That’s considerably more helpful,” Kirk grudgingly admitted, but his smile was genuine. Then there was a delicate pause, and Kirk said, “Um…”

It wasn’t the good sort of um, of course. Nyota raised an eyebrow, then her jaw dropped as she watched a brilliant green rash spread up Kirk’s skin. “Um…” she echoed, then cleared her throat awkwardly. “I guess you’re allergic to the plant. I suppose that we really shouldn‘t be surprised about that fact.” She watched the rash get a little greener and a little darker, but it didn’t spread any further across Kirk‘s skin. “How do you feel,” she asked rather nervously, worried that he would begin having trouble breathing or that his heart would start racing.

“I think that I’m alright,” Kirk reassured her after a moment‘s consideration of the rash. “We’re just two peas in a pod at the moment, aren’t we?” He tapped one of the blue marks on her skin and quirked a smile that looked only a little bit crazy. Nyota counted it as a win. “Let’s hope we’re almost there, since I don’t know how much worse our luck could possibly get without us dying.”

“I think you’ve just jinxed us,” Nyota said with a rather philosophical sigh. It was better to simply accept these things. “Now you know that things will definitely get worse. I’ve just reached the point that as long as we get these handcuffs off, I’ll be happy. Actually, if we just get out of this forest I‘ll be happy.”

They had seen neither hide nor hair of the Weeping Angel or Gold Star thus far however, and dark was soon falling in the forest. Their legs were aching and they themselves were exhausted, their ordeal beginning to weigh heavily on them. They began snapping at each other, tempers rising as the forest fell into complete shadow. They began to slow their pace, fighting to see even their hands in front of their faces, since the branches and leaves prevented what little sunlight was still present from reaching the forest floor. Nyota began regarding the forest around them with suspicion and fear, ignoring Kirk‘s grumbled comments.

Normally she didn’t mind the darkness, but this darkness pressed too close for comfort. She preferred the darkness that came in wide open spaces, where it was possible to see everything that was happening around her. Here, every shadow turned into a beast waiting to pounce, every rustle of leaves indicated danger. She crept closer to her Captain, practically pressing into his back even as her eyes flickered all around her, waiting for something to attack them.

“Walk like you’re the predator,” Kirk muttered under his breath, not sparing so much as a glance for her. Nyota was grateful, because that meant that he wouldn’t see her expression relax or her shake the tension from her shoulders. “If you act like you own the place, they’re less likely to be interested. And if any of them do show interest…” Kirk shrugged and tapped his holster with his free hand. “I’m armed, and so are you. We can take them.”

“Thanks,” Nyota whispered back, though her heart continued to race. Kirk’s words were foolhardy at best- it was likely that a nocturnal predator would be able to take them down before they even knew that they were pray. Even so, they were words kindly meant. “I think that we should get out of here sooner before later, however, before true darkness sets in.”

“We’re in accord then,” Kirk returned, and there was the flash of white teeth in the darkness.

Before they could say anything further, the forest opened up before them, and both of them gasped, eyes widening. They were at the top of an open valley, a clear river running through the middle of it. The ground was absolutely carpeted with red flowers, with the exception of the path in front of them, which had been carefully cleared. There were several stone formations in the valley, but Nyota instantly recognized the Gold Star, the Weeping Angel, and the Archway of Love. The sun was just slipping over the horizon, beginning to throw the valley into true darkness, but in the meantime, everything was backlit with the white heat of the system’s sun. As she looked over the valley, she couldn’t help but think that whatever else, it was worth it to have come just to see this.

The Gold Star was just that- a large stone in the shape of a many pointed star, gold gleaming along the cracks and making the entire thing glitter with a warm glow that reminded Nyota of nothing so much as a hearth fire. The Weeping Angel was a massive figure, the stones forming a rough form with distinct wings; two slabs had fallen over where the angel’s face had been, however, making it look as though the figure was covering its face, as though it was crying. It was a dark grey color, but even it picked up light and shimmered a little.

Then there was the Archway itself, which sat between the two monoliths. It was dwarfed in comparison, but it practically glowed in the last moments of sunlight. It was an elegant bone white, probably of marble or something similar, and it had obviously been worn by some sort of water exposure, which had carved delicate whorls into the surface. Those whorls picked up light surprisingly well, and glowed a myriad of reds, oranges and violets.

“That’s incredible,” Kirk breathed from beside her. He turned to grin exuberantly at her, and Nyota returned the look, blown away by the sheer beauty in front of her.

They made their way into the valley as darkness fell, and slowly they began to make out figures in the darkness, waiting for them beneath the Archway of Love. It was the rest of the team that had landed with them, along with Doctor McCoy, Nurse Chapel, and a few others that Nyota recognized only by sight.

Spock and Doctor McCoy sprinted out to meet them, each of them attempting to talk over the other to the Captain.

“-should have made it back hours ago-”

“-found evidence that-”

“-die out there, you damned fools-”

“-misunderstanding, and they have agreed-”

“-you thinking-”

“Stop!” Kirk cried, holding his hands up in front of him. McCoy took one look at his hands, and began hauling him forward, intending to take a closer look at Kirk’s hands. Nyota let out a cry as she was pulled forward, the sudden force reopening the wounds on her wrist.

That, of course, set off a flurry of activity, and it was nearly an hour later before both Nyota and Kirk had been taken care of, their wounds and various allergic reactions healed, and both their clothing taken care of; Nyota was glad though she’d become used to the smell after spending hours around it. From the faces of the others, the smell was as strong as ever, it seemed. Not long after that, she was bundled off to one of the official buildings along with Kirk so they could break the engagement, the misunderstanding having long since been explained and since everyone was no worse for the wear, diplomatic relations continued with celebrations of the new treaty despite both the Captain‘s and Nyota‘s exhaustion. Both of them waved away offers to retire early, doing their diplomatic duties to smile and laugh when the occasion called for it. This time, Nyota was very careful to neither ask nor agree to dance after the meal. Even so, it seemed that she was in high demand by the locals, who clearly believed that Kirk was a fool for breaking his engagement to Nyota, and nothing that either of them said could persuade them that it was definitely mutual.

It wasn’t until much later that evening that Kirk managed to speak with her, as all the natives seemed to be intent on running interference. “That wasn’t too horrible, was it?” he asked when he finally had a private moment with her. “I know you can’t stand me, but I think it could have been worse.”

Nyota thought of the long day they’d had, of the arguments and the allergies and the fear and the stress. Then she thought of how Kirk had handled it all, of how careful he’d been when examining the bug bites and the torn skin, how panicked he’d been when she’d been hanging off the edge of that cliff, of his warm smiles and genuine laughs, of his kind words and gentle teasing, and of his awe when they’d finally reached the Archway of Love.

She casually bumped against his shoulder, treating him to a long, slow smile of her own. Then she said, in perfect deadpan. “Of course it could have been worse. It could have been raining.”

Kirk looked at her for a moment, shocked, and then slung a casual arm around her shoulders and laughed loud and long.


End file.
